But, for your Christmas reading, Angry
Harry provides you with her introduction to the reprinted book, together
with the first chapter - which is short.

(The book may be purchased from Amazon.)

Author's Introduction

Over twenty-five years have passed
since the publication of my book The Manipulated Man - a pamphlet
written in great anger against the women's movement's worldwide monopoly
of opinion. The determination with which those women portrayed us as
victims of men not only seemed humiliating but also unrealistic. If
someone should want to change the destiny of our sex - a wish I had then
as I have today - then that someone should attempt to do so with more
honesty. And possibly also with a little humour. I would like to take
the opportunity presented by the re-issue of my book to answer two
questions which I am asked again and again in this context.

People often ask me if I would write
this book again. Well, I find it right and proper to have done so. But
seen from today's perspective, my courage in those days may only be
attributable to a lack of imagination. Despite all I wrote, I could not
really imagine the power I was up against. It seemed that one is only
allowed to criticise women on the quiet - especially as a woman - and
could only expect agreement behind closed doors.

As we women have, thanks to our
relatively stress-free life, a higher life-expectancy than men and
consequently make up the majority of voters in Western industrial
nations, no politician could afford to offend us. And the media is not
interested in discussing the issues involved either. Their products are
financed through the advertising of consumer goods, and should we women
decide to stop reading a certain newspaper or magazine as its editorial
policy displeases us, then the advertisements targeted at us also
disappear.

it is well established that women make the
majority of purchasing decisions

After all, it is well established that
women make the majority of purchasing decisions. However, I had also
underestimated men's fear of re-evaluating their position. Yet the more
sovereignty they are losing in their professional lives - the more
automatic their work, the more controlled by computers they become, the
more that increasing unemployment forces them to adopt obsequious
behaviour towards customers and superiors - then the more they have to
be afraid of a recognition of their predicament. And the more essential
it becomes to maintain their illusion that it is not they who are the
slaves but those on whose behalf they subject themselves to such an
existence.

As absurd as it may sound, today's men
need feminism much more than their wives do. Feminists are the last ones
who still describe men the way they like to see themselves: as
egocentric, power-obsessed, ruthless and without inhibitions when it
comes to satisfying their instincts. Therefore the most aggressive
Women's Libbers find themselves in the strange predicament of doing more
to maintain the status quo than anyone else. Without arrogant
accusations, the macho man would no longer exist, except perhaps in the
movies. If the press stylise men as rapacious wolves, the actual
sacrificial lambs of this "men's society", men themselves,
would no longer flock to the factories so obediently.

violent threats have not ceased to
this date.

So I hadn't imagined broadly enough
the isolation I would find myself in after writing this book. Nor had I
envisaged the consequences which it would have for subsequent writing
and even for my private life - violent threats have not ceased to
this date. A woman who defended the arch-enemy - who didn't
equate domestic life with solitary confinement and who described the
company of young children as a pleasure, not a burden - necessarily had
to become a "misogynist", even a "reactionary" and
"fascist" in the eyes of the public.

Had not Karl Marx determined once and
for all that in an industrial society it is us, the women, who are the
most oppressed? It goes without saying, doesn't it, that someone who did
not want to take part in the canonisation of her own sex is also opposed
to equal wages and equal opportunities? In other words, if I had known
then what I know today, I probably wouldn't have written this book. And
that is precisely the reason why I am so glad to have written it. I
would like to take this opportunity to thank the handful of people who
have stood up for me and my work. Typically, most of them were women.

The second question I am often asked
is about the topicality of the opinions I expressed then. To what extend
is what I described over twenty-five years ago still relevant to the
"new woman" and the "new man"?

Here is a list of issues which I
recognised in the original book to be men's most significant
disadvantages compared to women.

1. Men are conscripted; women are not.

2. Men are sent to fight in wars;
women are not.

3. Men retire later than women (even
though, due to their lower life-expectancy, they should have the right
to retire earlier).

4. Men have almost no influence over
their reproduction (for males, there is neither a pill nor abortion -
they can only get the children women want them to have).

5. Men support women; women never, or
only temporarily, support men.

6. Men work all their lives; women
work only temporarily or not at all.

7. Even though men work all their
lives, and women work only temporarily or not at all, on average, men
are poorer than women.

8. Men only "borrow" their
children; woman can keep them (as men work all their lives and women do
not, men are automatically robbed of their children in cases of
separation - with the reasoning that they have to work).

As one can see, if anything, the
female position of power has only consolidated. Today a career in the
military is also open to women in many countries - but without
conscription for all.

Many achieved for themselves the right
to practice their job for the same number of years as their male
colleagues - however, the retirement age was not increased for all of
us. And now as before, it does not occur to the underprivileged to fight
against this grotesque state of affairs. Only as far as the sixth point
is concerned, has there been a significant change. In the more
entertaining spheres of work, there are more and more women who happily
and willingly work and still keep their jobs despite having the children
they nevertheless desire. But only a few of these women would be
prepared to offer a life of comfort not only to their children but also
the children's fathers, supported by their often substantial salaries;
and fewer would further be prepared, in case of a separation, to give up
their home and offspring and support the next admirer with what is left
of her income.

emancipation may be fine, but to be "kept" by a
woman is still not acceptable

Also, men would not like it:
emancipation may be fine, but to be "kept" by a woman is still
not acceptable - housekeeping and raising children is not worthy of a
"real" man. Sadly, women's manipulation of men is as topical
today in the UK as it was back then, but so are the measures which could
be used to end it - to the benefit of both sexes.

In the meantime, however, there are
already a few feminists who are talking also about men as human beings,
so the continuation of this discussion may not have to be conducted
quite so loudly.

Esther Vilar, August 1998

And now here's ...

Chapter One

The Slave's Happiness

The lemon-coloured MG skids across the
road and the woman driver brings it to a somewhat uncertain halt. She
gets out and finds her left front tyre flat. Without wasting a moment
she prepares to fix it: she looks towards the passing cars as if
expecting someone. Recognising this standard international sign of woman
in distress ("weak female let down my by male technology"), a
station wagon draws up. The driver sees what is wrong at a glance and
says comfortingly, "Don't worry. We'll fix that in a jiffy."

To prove his determination, he asks
for her jack. He does not ask if she is capable of changing the tyre
herself because he knows - she is about thirty, smartly dressed and
made-up - that she is not.

His hands are covered with grease. She offers him an
embroidered handkerchief, which he politely refuses

Since she cannot find a jack, he
fetches his own, together with his other tools. Five minutes later the
job is done and the punctured tyre properly stowed. His hands are
covered with grease. She offers him an embroidered handkerchief, which
he politely refuses. He has a rag for such occasions in his tool box.

The woman thanks him profusely,
apologising for her "typically feminine" helplessness. She
might have been there till dusk, she says, had he not stopped. He makes
no reply and, as she gets back into the car, gallantly shuts the door
for her. Through the wound-down window he advises her to have her tyre
patched at once and she promises to get her petrol station attendant to
see to it that very evening. Then she drives off.

As the man collects his tools and goes
back to his own car, he wishes he could wash his hands. His shoes - he
has been standing in the mud while changing the tyre - are not as clean
as they should be (he is a salesman). What is more he will have to hurry
to keep his next appointment. As he starts the engine he thinks,
"Women! One's more stupid than the next". He wonders what she
would have done if he had not been there to help. He puts his foot on
the accelerator and drives off - faster than usual. There is the delay
to make up. After a while he starts to hum to himself.

In a way, he is happy.

Almost any man would have behaved in
the same way - and so would most women. Without thinking, simply because
men are men and women are so different from them, a woman will make use
of a man whenever there is the opportunity. What else could the woman
have done when her car broke down? She has been taught to get a man
help. Thanks to his knowledge, he was able to change the tyre quickly -
and at no cost to herself. True, he ruined his clothes, put his business
in jeopardy and endangered his own life by driving too fast afterwards.
Had he found something else wrong with her car, however, he would have
repaired that, too. That is what his knowledge of cars is for! Why
should a woman learn to change a flat tyre when the opposite sex (half
the world's population) is able and willing to do it for her?

Women let men work for them, think for
them and take on their responsibilities - in fact, they exploit them.

Women let men work for them, think for
them and take on their responsibilities - in fact, they exploit them.

Since men are strong, intelligent and
imaginative, while women are weak, unimaginative and stupid, why isn't
it men who exploit women?

Could it be that strength,
intelligence and imagination are not prerequisites for power but merely
qualifications for slavery?

Could it be that the world is not
being ruled by experts but by beings who are not fit for anything else -
by women?

And if this is so, how do women manage
it so that their victims do not feel themselves cheated and humiliated,
but rather believe to be themselves what they are least of all - masters
of the universe?

How do women manage to instill in men
this sense of pride and superiority that inspires them to ever greater
achievements?